Faulty Fourth Leads to 0-2 Start

Mar 02, 2009

SANFORD, FL – The York College
men’s lacrosse team dropped their second contest of the year
Monday afternoon as Rochester Institute of Technology bested the
Spartans 12-9 in Sanford, Fla. With the loss, the Spartans fall to
0-2 for the season while the Tigers up their 2009 season mark to
2-0.
RIT gained an early two-goal advantage courtesy
of David Burke and Cody Schroeder-Young. Burke opened the scoring
with a tally at the 10:53 mark of the first quarter, just 1:10
before Schroder-Young popped in his first of the day.
Senior Brian O’Neill (Lititz,
Pa./Manheim Township) answered quickly for the Green and
White, getting the Spartans on the board with a goal 26 seconds
after RIT notched their second.
The Tigers would continue the flurry of goals
as Sean Gillies gave RIT back the two-goal margin. Gillies’
score came less than a minute after O’Neill brought the
Spartans to within one.
Both defenses would turn it on over the next
7:58, as neither side was able to find the back of the net.
York’s Adam Cooper (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air)
eventually broke through in the period as he paired with
Patrick Coppinger (Jessup, Md./Hammond) to tally a
man-up goal with just 36 seconds remaining in the frame.
The Spartans knotted the score at three apiece
in the second quarter on a Josh Gamble (Easton,
Md./Easton) score with 8:03 left in the frame. AJ Tingle
then put RIT back in front with an unassisted goal at the 5:16 mark
as the Tigers led 4-3.
With only 1:41 left in the half, Gamble again
tied the score with his second of the day, this time courtesy of a
John Gaeta (Bel Air, Md./Archbishop Curley)
assist. As time wound down in the first half, freshman B.J.
Blaker (West Chester, Pa./Henderson) posted his third
score of the year. Blaker’s tally, with a mere 20 seconds
left in the half, gave York its first lead of the game at 5-4.
Unfortunately for the Green and White, that
lead would only last for 18 seconds as RIT’s Kelso Davis
notched the tying score with just two seconds to play. All told,
the squads went into the halftime break deadlocked at six.
At the break, RIT held a clear 19-9 advantage
in shots over York while the squads were nearly even in ground
balls at 25 and 24 respectively.
The third frame proved a back-and-forth affair
with neither side gaining a decisive edge. Tingle opened the
scoring only to be answered by York’s Ryan Schab
(West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) who tallied his first score
of the year.
Iric Bressler then gave the Tigers a
short-lived 7-6 lead at the 7:44 mark of the third before Gamble
knotted the score once again only 22 seconds later.
The Spartans then grabbed a one-goal lead of
their own on another Blaker tally with 4:38 to play in the period.
This lead proved to be yet another short-lived advantage as
RIT’s Chris Cherami posted a goal at the 2:57 mark, which
ultimately sent the game to the fourth period knotted at eight.
The Tigers would gain that decisive advantage
in the fourth as they strung together the period’s first
three scores en route to tallying four in the frame. The Spartans
would only manage one in the frame, a Kalen Roundy
(Ijamsville, Md./Urbana) notch with 2:11 left.
York ended the game with a slight 36-35 edge in
shots, including a 27-16 advantage in the second half. RIT secured
more ground balls at 27-44 while also winning 15-of-25
face-offs.
Five Tigers recorded two goals on the day as
Schroder-Young led the squad in points with a pair of scores and
one assist. Burke, Cherami, Davis, and Tingle were the other Tigers
to score twice. Jerry Ragonese captured a game-high nine ground
balls and won 12-of-16 face-offs. Goalkeeper Kevin Rattigan
records the win for the Tigers as he made ten saves over his 60
minutes of work.
Gamble led the way for the Spartans as he
notched a trio of goals and an assist for four points. Blaker added
a pair of tallies as he now leads the squad with four on the year.
Ryan McNicholas (Fallston, Md./Fallston) and
Mike LaRoque (Arnold, Md./DeMatha) each picked up
six ground balls for the Green and White. Sophomore netminder
Chris Collins (Westminster, Md./Westminster)
posted ten stops as he takes the loss in the Spartan cage.
York remains on the road this week as the
Spartans travel to Sewanee on Thursday, March 4. The non-conference
contest is scheduled for a 4:00 pm start.